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  1. Personal Finance
  2. Credit Card Debt

Americans Have Never Been So Far Behind on Their Credit Card Bills

By: Adam Hardy
Adam Hardy, expert in Personal finance, student loans, credit, job market, low-income finances, and Lead data journalist at Money
Adam Hardy
Lead data journalist | Joined May 2024
Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and many other outlets.
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Editor: Julia Glum
Julia Glum, expert in the IRS, taxes, credit scores, saving, colleges, mobile payment apps, and News Editor at Money
Julia Glum
News Editor | Joined February 2018
Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money.
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Published: Apr 15, 2024 5 min read
Stack of credit cards with past due stamps on them
Money; Getty Images

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia provides a glimpse into how Americans are dealing with credit card debt — and the picture is pretty bleak.

The phrase “series high” appears again and again throughout the short analysis, underscoring the fact that credit card balances, delinquencies and utilization rates have reached the highest levels since the Philadelphia Fed began tracking this data in 2012.

“Credit card performance worsened to historical levels,” the report states, noting that the share of folks who fell behind at least 30 days on their credit card payments reached an all-time high between October and December 2023.

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